with their stores and, for some of them, it may be all they have. When someone decides to steal from a store like this, it could disrupt their business and potentially cause major problems like the closing of stores and change in prices. Shoplifting can seriously hurt the morale of companies and could cause the owners to be much more suspicious of customers, causing them to enjoy working much less. This one small event can also lead to an entire change of atmosphere in the stores, with the owners being much less trusting of customers and potentially less friendly to future shoppers. 

     I believe that shoplifting like this should absolutely be stopped and that it is not morally correct in any way. This woman likely stole these items so that she could turn around and resell them for her own profit which is horrible to do to these small businesses. There are so many local boutiques like Serendipity, It’s So Wright, and Monkee’s around Greenville and to think that this could happen so easily must be scary for store owners all across Greenville. Small businesses have to work very hard in a community to make a living and have to be constantly improving their merchandise and what they provide for their customers, so when there is an offense like this it can cause many issues.

     Seeing the news on this crime, it makes me wonder when offenses like this have happened to small businesses in the past and how it has affected the stores and their profits. Even if the woman who stole the expensive boutique items was in a difficult financial situation, that is still no excuse to shoplift, especially from small local businesses that are just trying to make a living and potentially provide for the owners’ families.

     This shoplifting offense from local businesses has brought attention to the ethical problems with this issue and has opened my eyes to the difficulties of running a small business. I hope that this thief has been caught and that people can understand the situation.

     Administrators at Rose are in a position to affect the entirety of the school, their staff members and the students. The issue with these positions is that they are stretched out too far to effectively communicate with us and help those advocating for changes that are sorely needed in this school. For example, some students are suffering from sexual harassment from their fellow students. Why is this the case? Students can reach out to administrators to be met with a robotic response in an attempt to assure them that their problems would be handled. This frankly aggravating issue ensures that those who attempt to inform those with the ability to change the function of the school itself, are met with a false hope that ultimately degrades the pedestal on which we place them. 

Obviously our administration is composed of humans, and humans are flawed and incapable of completely quelling the endless storm of issues hurled at them. However, the simple fact that the students that essentially give them a purpose aren’t being held above some of the lesser issues, or do not take priority over watching the students in A block lunch, is astonishing. Personally, I haven’t sought the help of administrators on many issues, instead opting for a teacher, who seems to have some degree of humanity when placing their own priorities. Admittedly, I am just a student, so my understanding of the undoubtedly stressful occupation of ensuring the smooth operation of the school is limited. With the students frequently fighting, ensuring that discipline is properly handled and that learning is the center of the function of Rose High. Sadly, when dealing with students not properly behaving, those who slip under the radar seem to cause the most damage, and when contacted about these delinquent behaviors, students are ultimately ignored. This is an unacceptable norm. 

     This has the obvious solution of simply returning the emails and phone calls of the students, but this is a hulking task, as there are hundreds of students within the school, and everyone with their own litany of issues. This is why counselors exist, to help students with their private issues, but the function of a counselor is limited. In the end, those rendered powerful by their positions seek to delegate rather than to properly address the issues that clearly plague the student body, and can’t be truly addressed by the other staff in the school. This glaring problem cannot be fixed until the administration actually intertwines their job description with their performance. In the end, the only way for this to occur is by simply interacting and addressing the issues brought to them instead of brushing them aside, which isn’t acceptable despite our issues perhaps not seeming as big as the ones on their plates. This letter is to directly address the administrators, who neglect their duties as our administration by seeking to delegate their jobs and punish students who misbehave, over the other obtrusive issues presented to them.

-Anonymous